When You Cross
That Line
Sam
Slaughter. There Will Be Words, $5 chapbook
Stories
are meant to be told, even the weird and gritty ones. The ones with unhappy
endings. The stories collected in Sam Slaughter’s chapbook, When You Cross
That Line, are the kind of stories you find being told in rundown bars and
on long road trips. They are the kind of stories that make you think twice
about what you just read or heard. They deserve repeating.
Sam
Slaughter’s fiction isn’t a place for the fulfilled. Everyone is in constant
motion, in search of something. His characters are always in some sort of
transition phase, with subtle hints of a deeper history, but at the same time,
naïve enough to head into the dark alleys that we refuse to look at. In this
regard, his story hooks are a finely sharpened tool for this author’s tool box.
Used well, his hooks vary from story to story. Whether it’s the protagonist’s
curiosity in “When You Cross That Line” or the snowball of reactions in
“Neighborhood Watch,” you feel compelled to continue on. It’s not out of the
realm of possibility for his characters to cross that line between safety and
danger.
His
characters constantly explore things, for better or worse. You can’t say that
Slaughter’s characters linger. They move forward, at the risk of themselves and
those around them. Friend comes over to tell you about his new “security?”
Opening his trunk leads to a fairly gruesome treat. Getting an apartment in a
shady part of town? Be ready for the neighbors. Old man selling gators at a
roadside store? What could possible go wrong here? This old man in “When You
Cross That line” does his best to sell these alligators he has but there’s an
undercurrent that he’s pushing something else. Maybe he isn’t selling as much
as he’s pushing something away. Maybe it’s his hope. The setting in “When You
Cross That Line” has an odd yet familiar feel to it, his location an updated
locale between Flannery O’Connor country and Denis Johnson’s underbelly of
Americana filled with desperation and out of touch optimism. This is true for
all five stories of the chapbook.
It’s fitting that Slaughter’s chapbook is a product of
There Will Be Words, a reading series based in Florida. Slaughter has a way
about him that makes a reader feel eerily comfortable and yet at the same time
utterly shocked
at the turns he can make once you’re hooked into the story. Sometimes, simply
getting a beer for a friend will lead you to a conversation you weren’t
prepared for. Sometimes your new neighbors are a bit much to handle. Sometimes
(I imagine always) bears make really crappy security pets. But the hunger for
hope in Slaughter’s characters is undeniable. They may not be the
best, but they are enough. You may not feel good about being in Slaughter’s world,
but you will think more about the cracks in the sidewalk of our society, the
page six stories we easily overlook. (May 2015)
Purchase When You Cross That Line HERE.
Reviewer
bio: Nick Sweeney's book reviews can be found at the Atticus Review, the
Summerset Review, and the Heavy
Feather Review.
